Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back
by Misha Diamante
Summary: Takes place during Season 3 hiatus when Daryl was captured in Woodbury. Lucy was only planning on living in Georgia for a year when the virus hit. She was never raised to be a hunter or a fighter and now it's her job to protect her group. Everything changes when she finds a man with bound hands running through the woods.
1. Chapter 1: Get Off The Ledge

I wrote this story during the hiatus in season 3. Still working on finishing it. So far there's 50 pages so that buys me some time haha. It's rated M for a lot of cursing and later on there will be some sexy time scenes. Enjoy! Let me know what you think :)

Chapter 1: Get Off the Ledge and Drop the Knife

Daryl limped through the forest with a walker trailing about 10 yards behind him snarling and snapping at his feet. The trees blurred all around him as he sprinted through trying to avoid crashing. Branches whipped at his face leaving small cuts behind. His arms were still roped together from the Governor's henchmen at Woodbury and his left leg throbbed in pain from where one of them kicked him to the ground.

They had wanted him to fight Merle, his own goddamn brother.

It was difficult to push the memory from his mind watching the crowd scream for a fight. In a world where the dead came back to life, he almost forgot how bloodthirsty normal people could be.

Badly beaten and thrown into the ring, he wondered what his tough as nails older brother would do since he had never backed away from a fight in his life. The dark of night hid the faces of the crowd making them into a large lethal beast demanding its pint of blood, but he barely heard them while he looked over at his brother's reaction, which went from neutral to nauseated as he realized what the Governor had in store for them. Though only hours had passed since that moment, he was already certain that look would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Daryl tripped over a root sticking out of the ground, which slowed his pace and cursed at himself trying again to free his hands from the bindings. The walker closed in on him, but the ropes wouldn't budge. His adrenaline spiked readying his body for the fight. Desperately, he quickly looked around the small clearing to find a weapon that might give him more of an advantage.

To his right, a mess of curly blonde hair blowing in the wind caught his eye. A young woman perched like a bird high up in the tree watched him quietly holding a bow in one hand and the other poised to snatch an arrow from the pack slung on her back.

"You gonna watch or help?" he spat angrily.

The woman had been hunting for about an hour in complete silence when she saw the scruffy man barreling through the trees straight toward her. She hoped that he wouldn't notice her and when he did she swore that she wouldn't interfere. In a similar situation, she tried to help a young woman only to have her group surround her and try to steal her supplies.

Once she saw that his hands were tied a pang of guilt hit her in the stomach and she suppressed the instinct to help him still in shock to see a live person this far out in the woods.

"For fuck sake," he muttered as he leaned against the tree to brace himself.

The walker lounged at him and grabbed his shoulders trying to take a bite out of his neck. Daryl kicked him in the stomach and pushed him to the ground as he backed further into the clearing trying to think of a plan. The walker hit its shoulder against a low tree branch, which provoked it even more.

Unable to free his hands, he struggled to figure out a way to kill the relentless zombie and grabbed a pointed rock. With a few feet in between, his instinct took over leading the walker toward him and using the space to his advantage. When it lounged again toward him, he ducked behind a tree so that it tripped over its feet crashing to the ground. Without another second's hesitation, he pounced on his back to deliver a fatal blow to the head. Hitting him again, he made sure it was dead and then threw the rock on the ground like a football player spiking the ball in the end zone.

"Like what you see?" he called out to her.

She made no reply unsure how to handle the situation when she noticed a second walker dressed in army fatigues sneaking up behind him.

He didn't notice that the walker was closing in on him since he was still pulling at the ropes around his hands. Because he was distracted, his foot caught a large root sticking out of the ground and he fell straight on his face. Groggily he turned over revealing a cut on his forehead that gushed blood enticing the walker into a sprint toward him.

If he didn't get up the walker would bite him within seconds.

She held her breath hoping he would realize before it was too late.

Without thinking, she notched an arrow in place and shot it straight into the zombie's eye. After a quick scan around, she didn't see any more freaks approaching them so she climbed back down to the ground.

"How about you cut me loose then?" he asked.

"Who did you piss off in the first place?" she retorted approaching him with caution.

"Simple misunderstanding."

"Fair enough. Consider this a favor and don't follow me," she started to back away from him guessing that it would take a while before he got himself free. In that time she could lose him in the woods.

"Yeah right," he scoffed and then fell over on to the tree trunk behind him clearly not a hundred percent from his fall earlier. She headed towards him and considered cutting the rope, but paused to figure out if he was pulling some kind of trick or not.

To the side her hunting partner closed in on the man with his rifle ready to act if there was trouble.

"You move one step closer and I'll blow yar fuckin head off, ya hear?" Dennis hollered at him. "Did he hurt ya, Lu?"

"Nah, had to save his sorry ass."

"Looks like he's been through the ringer," he motioned to his hands. "Think we should waste 'im here?"

"Might have been the same assholes that got Alf," she replied. Even though there was no reason to trust the bound man, she felt the need to step in and protect him. Of course they couldn't trust him right away, but leaving him alone in the woods all banged up was as good as killing him and there were too few real people left in the world as it was.

"Shit, well we can't leave him out here. He'll be dead before the day's over and attract all the walkers to us after they've picked his bones clean. The cabin's not more than a couple hundred yards from here."

"Can you carry him? We can lock him up in the woodshed until we decide what to do with him."

Dennis was a short strong man so he was able to throw Daryl over his shoulder, but after a couple paces he realized that it would be too difficult to lug the dead weight across the uneven terrain.

"Fuck, this skinny guy weighs more than ya'd think. Wake up, man!" he said as he propped him against a tree and slapped him across the face. The guy nodded his head a bit and began to put one foot in front of the other with most of his weight resting on Dennis.

Slowly they made their way back to camp swearing that if any group of walkers came along they would have to ditch him. Luck must have been on his side since there were only two, which Lucy was easily able to put down without Dennis and the unnamed man even breaking pace.

At camp, a little girl with short chopped blond hair came running out to greet them and see the man. Any new addition was immediately of interest because they were so small as a group of four.

Dennis was a 50 year old former construction worker and marine so any type of muscle they needed was from him. Originally he had been one of a trio. When he first met the others, he had escaped from Atlanta with his two sons, who were in their twenties, but they had an unlucky encounter with some walkers within the first couple months afterward. Dennis never mentioned them anymore to the others. There was no need. Everyone had some similar whole in his heart.

Lucy and Dennis had grown much closer since his sons had passed. Without them around to help keep guard and hunt, Lucy was forced to pick up the slack along with other chores like running for supplies. They say you never get more than you are able to take on and luckily that theory held true. Before the fallout, she had never shot a gun let alone hunted for survival and now other people depended on her to provide for them and keep them out of harm's way.

The other two were an elderly woman named Nell, who was beginning to get arthritis in her hands, and her 9 year old granddaughter, Annie, who was so skinny that the others were beginning to suspect there was something more medically wrong with her than just being hungry all the time.

Everyday Lucy worried a little more about keeping the group alive. It was difficult enough watching out for herself, how could she possibly be able to keep an old woman and a sick kid alive too?

"Who's he?" Annie questioned.

"Found him in the woods running from a walker," Lucy explained.

"Why'd you tie him up?"

"Don't know if we can trust him yet. Open the door, Annie."

The girl scampered over to the woodshed and pulled the door open. Dennis and Lucy laid him inside tying him up more securely to the pole in the middle that provided foundation for the roof. The shed was more secure than the house constructed of concrete and wood. It looked like they had taken the quick way out and filled the cracks with plaster and concrete to make it more resistant to the elements rather than rebuild it from scratch.

"Think we made a mistake bringing him here?" Lucy whispered to Dennis.

"Too late to think about now."

"Maybe he can help us out."

"Don't get your hopes too high, kid," he said as the two of them checked again to make sure he didn't have any bites or scratches. He was so beat up though there was no way to know for sure except to wait.

"Did you find anything?" Nell asked Lucy when she entered the cabin.

"Couple of rabbits and squirrels. They're so scrawny though doubt we'll be able to get more than a meal out of them."

"Don't worry. I'll figure out something," she reassured.

"They put a man in the shed," Annie told the other woman.

"Alive?"

"Barely, he was bleeding all over the place and making a racket," Dennis answered.

"What's his name?"

"Annie, we don't know. He was unconscious when we found him," Lucy lied.

"Can I ask him?"

"No, you don't go anywhere near that shed," Dennis warned her.

"Why not?" she naively wondered.

"We don't know if he's a danger yet."

"Seriously, Annie. No where near that shed," Lucy emphasized.

Nell prepared them a small dinner of rabbit stew so they sat around the table in the cabin and attempted to eat without thinking too much about the bloody man locked inside the woodshed. Annie asked a dozen more questions. Lucy tried to stop her, but it was difficult to explain to her how dangerous a situation might be for them. She still had that young naiveté which prevented her from seeing threats as her older companions saw.

Dennis and Lucy realized months ago that without Nell they would have been a lot worse off with making things seem as normal as possible. She had that motherly knack for making the most out of the resources that they managed to acquire and comforting people when they were too stressed. As the weather became colder, she used the extra scraps from hunting to make soups that went a lot further than the meat and bones would have alone. Without her they would have no idea how to ration things out or pack on the go.

The sun started setting and Lucy shot a look over to Dennis. They spent so much time hunting and fighting together they were able to communicate fairly well with non-verbal cues so as not to alarm the others. She knew that once the man woke up he would not be thrilled with being tied up in the middle of nowhere unable to defend himself.

Right on time, the man started hollering from the shed hurling a string of obscenities about what he would do once he was free.

"Great dinner, Nell. Let me excuse myself," Dennis set his dish in the sink and walked outside. "Lock the door behind me, Lu. May take a while."

"You goddamn idiots! What the hell ya got me tied up for? Ya brought me here for chrissakes! I didn't ask for help."

Dennis opened the door and carefully closed it behind him. Wordlessly, he lit the lantern and pulled a chair over just close enough so that he could look at him straight on. Enough time had passed and he still hadn't turned into the undead, but the question of what to do with him loomed large in Dennis' mind.

"No need for hollerin' like that. Ya know there ain't no one around that's likely to help ya."

"I'll stop when I'm good an ready."

"Strong fellow like yourself has encountered the things that creep around in the night. No need to let 'em know where ya tied up neither."

Daryl stopped shouting since he knew better than to attract all the walkers especially in his current predicament. He pulled his hands for the hundredth time to see if there was any chance the beam was loose, but to no avail. His wrists would be cut and bloody before the post moved an inch.

"Why ya got me tied up?" he asked.

"We've had a couple of situations. Learned to take precautions. Why don't ya tell me who ya are?"

"I'm nobody. None of us ain't nobody anymore. What kind of stupid question is that?"

"Something to hide?"

"Not into tellin' some stranger my life's story."

"Why were ya tied up? Seems to me that I ain't the first person to think ya untrustworthy."

He grinded his teeth while he considered his options in the current situation. If he told the man the truth, there was a chance he would take pity on him and maybe even thank him for the heads up on Woodbury. On the other hand, he could take it as a threat that they would be after him and his group for housing their prisoner and if he lied there were any number of different scenarios that he knew he wasn't smart enough to plan for the outcomes.

"Fine. We'll start small. What's ya name?" Dennis questioned further.

"Fuck off."

"Hello Fuck Off, I'm Dennis. Now how many others are in ya group?"

"A bunch," he muttered.

"10? 20?" he pressed, but Daryl refused to answer him. He turned his face away to the corner of the room staring off into the dark. "Not too interested in them. Just lookin' to keep my people safe. Understand that, don't ya? Probably feel the same way about your group."

"I ain't telling you nothin'. You can keep me here long as ya like."

He stood and pushed the chair back in the corner only the sound of his boots clicking and the young man's labored breathing could be heard. The two stared at each other sizing each other up trying to see any hint of weakness.

Dennis took another step toward him and cracked the knuckles in his right hand signaling his comfort with beating him to a pulp.

Daryl recalled the previous month when Rick had asked him to interrogate that little shit Randall. He hadn't even hesitated since he was angry with Rick and Glen for bringing him back to farm in the first place and putting everyone else in danger. After hearing what happened with the other men in the kid's group, Daryl assumed the kid was guilty thinking of other young guys he knew as a teenager.

Put enough of them in a group together and you got that mob mentality. One time some neighbor boys beat a 12 year old close to death and as soon as they were caught they were all blubbering how they didn't mean to and blamed each other. Within 6 months they killed a guy and got sent away for years. He had always been sort of a loner to begin with but that one sealed the deal. No reason to have some kid's blood on your hands just because someone asked you to help him out one time.

"See now that ain't cuttin' it and I need to know who your people are. If ya don't want to do things the easy way, it'll get hard."

"Guess it's gonna get hard then," he shot back.

Dennis wasn't a violent type of man by nature, but the world has other plans sometimes. He placed his gun and knife on the table far enough away were the captive couldn't reach it and then began the interrogation like he had been trained for in the marines special operations. He began with a blow to the face that hit so hard his jaw seemed to loosen. Dennis repeated his questions and every time Daryl refused to answer he hit him in the stomach

"How many people are in your group?"

Daryl flipped him off.

Dennis fists crashed down on him so many times that he lost count.

A steady stream of blood began pouring from Daryl's face.

"Where's your group?" he yelled at him.

"Go to hell," he spat blood from his mouth.

Dennis threatened him a couple of times and continued to beat him, but Daryl refused to give him any information. He settled in for the night unable to stop without being completely sure there weren't other people coming to murder them in the night.

Outside, Lucy sat on the small porch wrapped in a blanket and holding her gun to keep watch while Dennis finished the interrogation. Annie sat by her feet telling her about some story that Nell told her earlier, something about the squirrels fighting with each other, but when they overheard the muffled sounds coming from the shed she sent the kid inside. No reason to let her know exactly how bad it would get before the night was over. After about an hour, Lucy saw Dennis approach the house with his knuckles caked in blood and dirt.

"Any luck?" she asked.

"None, that lil' sob is tough. He wouldn't tell me nothin' about the people he's with," he told her while he grabbed a towel to wipe off his hands.

"He's got to be with someone. I'm more concerned with why he was tied up when we found him. Someone might be looking for him to settle a score."

"Well, I ain't gonna Guantanamo him anymore. We'll fix him up in the morning and leave him be. We should try moving west in a couple of days. Find somewhere safer for the winter. You know they won't be able to handle the cold very well," he lowered his voice so the others wouldn't overhear the last part.

"What's your take on him?"

"Probably grew up same as most of the guys I know. Learn to rely on yourself. Don't take shit from strangers. Doesn't seem like the type to take something that isn't his, but you can never tell for sure anymore."

"I'll patch him up in the morning."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll play good cop and see if he tells me anything."

"Try not to flirt too much," he chuckled.

"Oh yes, can't keep my hands off those dirty rednecks."

"Why don't ya try and get a couple hours," he suggested. "I'll wake ya up in a bit to takeover."

"You better, Dennis. Can't stay awake all the time."


	2. Chapter 2: Drop the Knife

Lucy attempted to sleep for a couple hours and then relieved Dennis from his post. It didn't matter who kept watch and who didn't these days since neither of them wound up counting many sheep. It had been much easier when his sons and the others were still with them.

She watched the sunrise in the distance and thought about saying a little prayer for being able to start another day, but she was never religious and it seemed wrong to start now. Ducking into the cabin quickly, she grabbed the little first aid kit and headed back out to the shed. It would have been smart to wait until Dennis woke up so that she would have back up in case he tried to attack her. She paused at the door knowing that she shouldn't go in there alone, but then her curiosity got the best of her.

Since he was still asleep she took a minute to examine him. With the door open, there was enough light to see his outline sleeping with his back facing her and his wrists still bound. She put her weapons on the table just in case he was able use them against her and took a step closer. He must have tried to escape for a while during the night because his wrists were cut deep from the ropes. When he rolled over slightly, she almost mistook him for a walker his face was so caked in dried dark red blood. Even though she knew what Dennis had done, she was still surprised by the effects never really having seen someone beaten before.

"Merle," he murmured in his restless sleep. He repeated the name a couple more times followed by what could have been an apology. She couldn't make out anything else he was saying, but he seemed upset even in the dream state so she figured it must have been someone close to him that passed away.

Everyone had those same nightmares now.

"Hey man," she said as she tapped him with her foot.

He woke with a start and backed away as far away from her he possibly could while still being attached to the pole.

"You met my friend last night. He's right outside the door ready to wail on you again if there's any trouble. All right?"

He didn't say anything only stared with a mild hostility.

"I want to clean you up a little bit, but I want to hear it from you first that I don't have anything to worry about. You understand me?"

"Yeah," he grunted.

She crouched toward him and started to examine the cuts a little more. They weren't as bad as she thought originally once the blood was cleared away he would look like he was in a late night bar fight. The cut on his forehead was a bigger cause for concern since it was the oldest, from his fight with the walker, and still hadn't closed completely. If it didn't close, he would need a couple stiches, which none of them knew how to do without making the victim look like Frankenstein.

"Water?" she asked. He nodded so she gave him a couple large gulps.

"You were in the tree," he mentioned. His voice was raspy from being dehydrated.

"Yes, I saw you take out that biter with your hands tied."

"Pretty neat trick, huh?"

"I've seen better," she lied. Truth be told she had never seen someone come close to that level of skill. If he successfully escaped and wanted revenge, they would have a far bigger problem than the flesh-eating freaks out in the woods.

Lucy poured out some water on a rag and motioned to his head. "May I?" she asked.

He gave a quick nod barely blinking as he kept staring at her trying to figure out what kind of person she was since she clearly was not a soldier. After the previous night, he'd forgotten about the girl in the tree so she was the last person her would have expected in the morning. As the light poured in the small room, he realized that her hair had a reddish glow making it a light shade of strawberry blonde. She tried not to focus on his intense gaze and concentrated on doing the least amount of damage to his banged up face.

"You ain't from the South," he stated.

"Baltimore, that's where I grew up mostly."

"What did you do wrong to wind up in this godforsaken hick land?"

"I got transferred with my job. I had only been working in Atlanta for 3 months when it all happened."

"Lucky you, Baltimore," he coughed to clear his throat and spit in the corner away from her.

She cleaned off his face as best she could without getting too close. There was still a lot caked on his chin and hairline, but he started to look like a real person again. Even though he looked like he had been through the ringer and he talked kind of like Yosemite Sam, Lucy admitted that she found him more interesting than she should have. In the dark early morning light, she could still see those clear blue eyes that shocked her the day before and as much as she avoided eye contact she kept glancing back up again.

"My name's Lucy, if you were wondering."

"Think I'll stick to Baltimore considering the present circumstances."

"Fine by me. What's your name? Merle?"

"No, where did you hear that?" he got defensive when he heard the name.

"You were saying it in your sleep. Someone you know?"

"Knew."

"Sorry," she told him as she moved on to his hands. After clearing away some of the dried blood, she poured some peroxide over the wounds and let it soak in a little bit. He swore under his breath, but didn't yelp in pain.

"Daryl," he groaned.

"Pardon me?"

"My name's Daryl."

"Good to meet you," she gave a small smile.

As she finished working on his wrists, Daryl tried to size her up and wasn't too sure what to make of the situation. The man from the night before had that tough military persona that came from seeing too much tragedy, but the girl in front of him was not in the same category. She couldn't have been more than late 20's and seemed sincere in her interest to help him. It gave him a small hope that his captors were normal people like his group unlike the psychopaths over at Woodbury.

"Suppose you wouldn't let me go now that we're all acquainted?"

"You know I can't do that."

He shrugged knowing it was a long shot to begin with.

"You hungry?"

He nodded and she told him that she would bring him something to eat. As she headed back to the cabin, Dennis stood on the porch with his arms crossed waiting for her.

"You should have waited until I was up," he told her.

"I can take care of myself, Dennis."

She pushed past him to the kitchen where she filled a bowl of cereal from the supplies they had found there. Nell and Annie were still curled up in the bed on the other side of the room so she tried to keep the noise to a minimum.

"We don't know what he's capable of yet," Dennis hissed at her.

"Well I don't want us to be capable of that mess," she whispered back.

Lucy hurried back outside knowing that she was getting upset and was likely going to yell about it.

"We can't be the sort of people that beat a man to death! Then we're not any different than the scumbags that killed Alf to take his weapons and left him to rot out there."

"Lu, we're not," he coaxed.

"Not yet, but it's easy to slip off the edge. You know that Denny."

"I did what needed to be done. Nothin' wrong with that."

"Let's leave tomorrow. It seems wrong leaving him trapped in there. We'll cut him loose and be on our way."

"No way, Nell needs to rest. The last couple weeks really took a toll on her."

They finally agreed to leave in two days, which would hopefully be enough for everyone to rest up and heal their cuts and bruises a bit more. The past month, they had been on the run constantly never staying more than a night anywhere. The walkers were migrating to search for food. Even the middle of nowhere wasn't far enough away anymore. Exhaustion would kill off their companions first if they didn't take the time to recover when they had the chance.

She stomped back over to the shed to give Daryl the cereal still in her hand. He looked a little confused when she threw it at him in a huff and then turned on her heel out the door. Walking away Lucy realized the door had been open during her conversation with Dennis and she wondered if the pissed off hick had heard everything. It didn't matter much either way she supposed since she didn't sleep anymore.

May be cliched but I love a good patient nurse scene ;)


	3. Chapter 3: The Devil's Got Your Number

The rest of the day was uneventful as the group tried to take their mind off the situation. Nell cleaned the cabin even though she knew they would be leaving within the week and fixed up a big meal of cereal and some deer meat she found still frozen in the icebox. Lucy played cards with Annie while Dennis watched the outside of the house to make sure no walkers snuck up on them.

One of the worst things about the little cabin was that there was only one door in or out and the way it was constructed the windows backed up to a steep drop. Lucy worried that they might be trapped inside if the door was blocked and the drop from the window would probably cause them all to break a bone or two.

She focused more on the card game knowing that she was still not comfortable being isolated in the woods at night since she had always lived in a city. The silence by far worried her more than the dull background noise of car alarms and boom boxes blasting different kinds of music. In the city, the night never got very dark and in the woods it was impossible to see three feet in front of your nose. Although she had always enjoyed quiet time to herself, the darkness of the woods gave her an eerie feeling that was so different from the calm silence of a library or her little apartment she used to love.

Those damn walkers were so quiet when they hadn't eaten for a long time. That was when they were the most dangerous, quiet and hungry.

"Should I take food out to him?" Nell asked Lucy.

"No I'll do it. He's only seen me and Dennis. The less he knows about our group the better," she answered as she grabbed the bowl and told Lucy to set the table for them.

Inside the shed, Daryl was so bored he started counting the planks of wood in the wall in a desperate attempt to entertain himself. He wanted to sleep as long as he was tied up anyway, but every time he shut his eyes the same images played, Merle body checking the man that guarded him to cause a distraction so that Daryl could escape.

Merle wasn't the type to be a hero. When they were younger he used to wail on Daryl trying to "toughen" him up after their father was sent away to prison. The two of them relied on each other for most things since their mother had a nasty meth habit and always forgot about them when she got high. In a sick way Daryl hoped that Merle's beatings were a misguided way to prove that his brother cared about what happened to him, but he never believed it until that night at Woodbury.

Merle caused a diversion so Daryl's guard would get distracted and leave him unattended, which was barely enough time to make a break for an escape. When Daryl turned around, he saw his brother's chest filled with bullet holes and his face blankly staring in his direction. He wanted to go back for him, but it was already hopeless. No one could survive that many shots to the chest, not even Merle, so he sprinted to the wall and hurled himself over. Under the cover of the night, he barely escaped zig-zagging through the woods to obscure any trail he might leave behind, a trick that Merle taught him years ago when they were kids.

He slept a few hours to regain his strength under a log with a dead walker next to him to hide his scent. At daybreak he started running again. He wanted to cut the ropes first since he had been unable to the night before when a walker saw him and started chasing him through the woods. That led him to the small clearing where he was able to put it down only to be captured by the chick in the tree.

As the events played in his mind, he cursed himself for not taking the time to find a sharp rock and cut the ropes. It might have made the difference in his escape. Now he was trapped with no sense of where he was or how to return to the prison and the longer he was held captive, the more likely it was that Rick and the others would get killed trying to save him or cut their losses and take off without him. Neither scenario he liked to think about much.

With a short knock on the door Lucy entered holding a bowl of something that she silently handed to him.

"So how long ya gonna keep me in here?" he questioned as he took a greedy bite of the venison.

"We haven't come to an agreement yet about you," she plainly told him.

"You don't want to kill me though."

She was annoyed as she realized he must have heard enough of the argument with Dennis earlier enough to know that his chances of escape were better with her. Although she did not want his blood on her hands, there was not much of a reason to trust him either. If he escaped, he would probably be able to take them by surprise and kill them all. She wouldn't even blame him after what Dennis did to his face.

He looked past her at the door and his face went blank white like he'd seen a ghost.

"Sophia…" he whispered.

Lucy turned around quickly and saw Annie at the door peering into the room.

"Annie!" she yelled at her.

"Nell wants you to come inside," she looked toward the ground clearly feeling guilty that she did exactly what the others told her not to do by letting the captive see her.

"Annie, get in the goddamn house!" Lucy stomped her foot at her to scare her off and quickly asked, "Why did you call her Sophia?"

"There aren't that many in your group are there?" he realized.

"Why did you call her that?" she repeated hoping to get an answer before he thought too much about what happened.

"Probably only you and the man protecting some weaker folks," he deduced from her strained reaction.

"Who's Sophia? Did you kill her?" she pushed.

"No I didn't," he snarled at her, "Why would I hurt a little girl? Who the fuck you think I am?"

"What happened to her then?" she lowered her voice trying to coax an answer.

He sighed and looked off into the corner of the room. Before he thought about it, he found himself retelling the horrible story how Sophia was lost in the woods when a herd was after them on the interstate. One of their group killed off the walkers and when he went back to look for her she had disappeared into the woods.

"I grew up in the woods. Figured there was a chance she could survive out there a couple days and give us a chance to find her. I looked for almost a week."

"Did you ever find her?"

"Sure did, she'd been dead about a week. Her mother couldn't stop cryin' for days though no one blamed her. Seein' ya kid growling like an animal. Ugh, that whole search for fuckin' nothing."

"That means a lot. I'm sure it did for her mother," she assured him. "Those kinds of actions have even more meaning now as we go 'deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness'."

"Heart of darkness?" he raised an eyebrow.

"It's from a book. I never understood it until recently. The phrase comes to mind a lot these days."

"Sounds 'bout right."

While she explained, she realized she was on the floor across from him even though she didn't remember sitting down. Lost in thought with his memories, Daryl looked a lot younger than Lucy originally pinned for him. The stress made them all look older. She noticed a couple grey hairs herself that should not have grown in for at least another five to ten years.

"We're not going to kill you," she admitted, "As long as you don't do anything to us. We were planning on leaving in a couple days anyway. I'll make sure we cut you loose before we go."

"Any guns?"

"No can do. I'll leave some knives and food inside the cabin. Best I can do, okay?"

"All right," he agreed figuring his chances of survival were better with her than the man who nearly beat him to death.

His instincts told him that these people were not much different than his own group, normal people trying to survive. Rick might have handled the situation same as the man that interrogated him and a good man like Rick was pushed to do things he never would have done before the world went to hell. The woman seemed to want to let him go so he had to play that to his advantage he told himself.

Lucy murmured an apology for Sophia and then quickly left before he had a chance to say anything else. There wasn't much of a reason to trust him, but the story convinced her more or less that he didn't intend to harm them. She didn't understand why she felt the need to protect him when it was likely she had more to fear from him than the other way around.

When she entered the cabin, Dennis was pacing around with his hands balled up into fists and Annie was on the sofa crying into Nell's shoulder.

"What in the hell happened?" Dennis asked.

"Everything's fine. We came to an agreement. As long as he doesn't hurt anyone, I said we'll free him and leave some supplies when we leave."

"No way, we're not leavin' shit for him."

"He hasn't made any trouble for us so far and you beat him pretty bad."

"I don't give a shit 'bout him. My job is keeping our family safe."

"It doesn't seem like he's a bad guy. He told me he looked in the woods for a week when a kid in his group went missing."

"He's misleadin' ya cause he thinks you're weak. If he got the chance, he'd kill us all for tyin' him up like a damn dog."

"He's a normal guy, Dennis. I don't think he would," she muttered.

Dennis had a way of making her feel childish when she disagreed with him because he was a soldier and was already used to the darker nature of man. Lucy still held out hope that humanity wouldn't be destroyed even as civilized society was swept further away from their memory.

"Ya don't know him," Dennis continued, "And even if he's easy on the eyes, you can't be sure he ain't a monster already."

"It doesn't matter what I think. We're leaving the day after tomorrow. All we have to do is give him a knife to cut himself free and a box of cereal for the road and then my conscience will be clear. I'm not saying we have to take him drag him along with us."

"Better not be," he stared her down as he picked up his gun again and marched outside to take the first watch as usual.

"I'm sorry," Annie wailed.

"Baby girl, don't worry about it. Next time, you have to listen to us though. We're trying to keep us all safe and together."

"I didn't get us killed?"

"No, sweetie. It's fine," Lucy said as she wrapped her in a warm hug, "You know me and Dennis always take care of things."

"But you were fighting."

"That's how we figure out what to do. We disagree and find a good compromise."

After some coaxing from Lucy and Nell, Annie curled up in bed and went to sleep. Once Nell straightened up she crawled in next to Annie and Lucy took the couch again. Both of them had trouble falling asleep after the fight.

"You think he's a good man?" Nell whispered to her after a couple minutes.

"Yes, I do."

"Hope you're right."

Lucy managed to sleep a couple hours and then woke up around 3 a.m. to take over for Dennis. He was still annoyed with her, but was too tired to argue again and headed inside without saying anything.


	4. Chapter 4: Ready for a Firefight

Lucy was still upset in the morning that Dennis insinuated she would be so stupid to believe Daryl because he was good looking and even more upset with herself because it was partly true. She did find him attractive even though he was covered in dirt and blood.

Under normal circumstances she would have never looked twice at him since her eye was usually drawn to well educated businessmen. A couple different men in Atlanta frequented the art gallery she worked at trying to impress her with the amount of money they threw down carelessly to purchase works from the latest up and coming artist. She had finally agreed to go out with one of them, but that was before the city burned to the ground.

It wasn't his looks distracting her the story he told about the little girl convinced her more about his character. The look on his face when he mistook Annie for the girl he used to know couldn't be faked and the way he seemed to forget she was sitting in the room while he recounted the events was too sad. No one could lie that well or seem that torn apart unless the story was a true one.

The sun rose again and she thought of the different shades of color like brushstrokes each one perfectly placed together in a masterpiece. French modernist? Baroque? No she decided it was definitely a Russian abstract and chuckled to herself for still thinking about art the way she would have before Armageddon.

When Annie and Nell woke up, they were both still uneasy about the argument from the night before and they watched Lucy like she might be set off again if they said the wrong thing. Their stares were making her anxious as it often did when other people watched her too closely. She had always felt most comfortable in the rich silence of the gallery or library, most often hoping that no one would interrupt her thoughts.

For hours Lucy paced around the house unsure of what to do with herself waiting for Dennis to wake up so she would not have to keep watch outside. The others continued to nervously watch her from inside. Dennis finally convinced her to take a walk and try to go hunting for a while as long as she did not leave too far from the house.

In the woods, she usually found it much easier to concentrate as long as there was enough daylight to see any walkers. Around others she got too anxious. The constant threat of starvation, snarling monsters, and eventual transformation into said monsters was sometimes too much to handle. Most of her life, she only had to take care of herself.

She had no siblings and her mother left a string of terrible ex stepfathers behind her. Not to mention that her mother died years ago long before there was any hint that zombies would infest the world. Even when she was alive, the two never had a great relationship to begin with so most of her childhood memories were either alone or convincing the nanny to take her out somewhere.

After she caught a squirrel and spent about an hour sitting on a tree branch, Lucy felt better than earlier so she decided to head back. When she approached the cabin there was a walker coming up along the cabin heading toward the front door. Quietly she snuck up on it and stabbed it in the head with her machete before it was even able to turn around. With a sigh of relief she took a couple steps forward and then gasped.

There was a herd of them right in front of the cabin door, about 10 in total, which was too many for her to take by herself. Quickly she ran over to the woodshed and closed the door behind her as quietly as she could so they didn't swarm.

"What are ya doin?" Daryl asked.

She put a finger over her lips and then cracked the door opened an inch so she could get a better look. If they stayed silent, the walkers might pass by the house without realizing they were there, but as she hoped for that outcome she heard Annie scream at the top of her lungs and Dennis curse loudly as he blocked the door with his body. The walkers threw all their weight against the door and broke the glass window right away. Nell and Dennis managed to get a bookcase in front of the door before any of them got in, but that would only hold them off temporarily.

"Goddamn it," Lucy said to herself.

"How many?" Daryl asked.

"Too many, at least 10 and more will come when they hear the noise. I can't get them all by myself. Fuck, Dennis will never be able to get them all out alive. I knew that design was a trap."

"What?"

"There's only one door, the back of the house has a twenty foot drop."

"You folks have a ride?"

"A jeep, but Dennis has the keys. There has to be a way to get them out," she told him.

"Give me the knife," he calmly said to her.

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't really have an option. Are you a good shot with the bow?" he questioned.

"Yeah, I have 12 arrows left. It should be close to enough. I suck at hand to hand though after that I'm dead."

"Give me the knife then, I'll do it."

The two stared at each other trying to figure out if the other could be trusted. Even though Daryl didn't care about the others in the cabin, he did want to live through the day. Lucy knew there was no way she could fight all the zombies on her own so there was not much of a choice. At least the keys would keep him from killing them immediately. Right now they all had the same goal: stay alive.

"You were right, it's just me and Dennis taking care of the kid and an old lady," she admitted, "I promised I would take care of them."

"I understand."

"Please don't make me regret this," she pleaded as she took the machete off her belt, cut the rope with one swoop.

As her nerves overcame her, Lucy grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. She knew it was a terrible idea and there was still a chance he would kill them all when he got the chance, but she couldn't leave the shed without that kiss. After months of loneliness and since they were probably going to die on this suicide mission anyway, it seemed like a good idea.

It was a short kiss, no more than a peck, and before Daryl had time to react she had already pulled away and handed him the blade.

"I'll go out first and try to get as many as I can. Then we'll make a break for the door."

She threw the door open and shot an arrow at one of the walkers in the back of the herd. After she knocked off a couple more of them she took a step forward. They began to notice her and started to move away from the door.

"Dennis! In 15 seconds you open that door and make a break for the jeep, okay?" she shouted.

They heard a yell from the cabin and then she started to count down from 15 killing zombies as she stepped away toward the car. Once there were only about 5 left, Daryl ran over and attacked them. His body curled up like a cat and pounced one by one as the snarling freaks snapped their teeth at them.

"One! Go, go, go!" she shouted.

Then the door flew open as the three of them hurried down the stairs toward the car. Dennis led them out and started firing his gun as another group of zombies hurled toward them attracted by all the commotion. As Daryl killed the last walker in front of the cabin, he hurried back to the jeep and hopped in the back seat.

Lucy ran toward the house to retrieve as many arrows as she could and then took Annie's hand to bring her into the backseat. Dennis followed close behind with his keys in hand to take the driver's seat.

"Where's Nell?" Lucy asked.

"She was right behind me," Dennis told them.

They looked back toward the house and saw that she had gone back for something in the cabin. As she came back out, a walker caught her arm and bit down hard into her bicep. She screamed out in pain and Lucy jumped out of the car to shoot the damned creature in the head.

"Come on, Nell!" Lucy yelled.

The old woman shook her head with a tearful smile and threw the bag to Lucy. She took off into the woods leading the other walkers to follow her so that the others could escape.

"Lucy, get in the damn car!" Dennis shouted, which shocked her back into action.

As soon as she got into the passenger seat, Dennis floored the jeep down the dirt road putting the walkers behind them. About a mile down the way after they could no longer hear Nell's screams they finally took a breath to realize that they escaped. All they could hear now were Annie's sobs from the backseat.

Lucy turned around to comfort her and was surprised to see the girl with her arms wrapped around Daryl's neck crying into his shoulder. He looked unsure about what to do and awkwardly patted the hysterical kid on the back.

"Was that her mother?" he asked softly.

"Grandmother… last family member…" Lucy explained. She rubbed her forehead and wanted to cry so she distracted herself by looking in the bag. Inside was all the food and ammunition they were going to take. Dennis must have forgotten in all the chaos and of course she went back for it, always making sure they were well prepared.

She hopped over the center console to sit in the backseat so that she could detach Annie from Daryl, who looked more uncomfortable by the minute.

"Sweetie, let go of him. I got you," she whispered. Slowly Annie let go of him and Lucy put her arms around her trying to think of some way she could convince the kid that everything would be all right. Maybe if she could convince Annie then she could convince herself too, but her mind was blank. All she could tell her was everything would be all right, which everyone knew was an empty promise.

For a long while, they drove in silence only with Annie's sobs filling the car and when she fell asleep it was still a long time before anyone said anything. Daryl seemed to realize how devastated they were and kept his mouth shut not wanting to say something stupid or insulting. He still wanted to ask Lucy why she kissed him, but it was definitely the wrong time to ask about something pointless.

"Thanks," Dennis broke the silence and looked at Daryl in the rearview mirror, "We wouldn't of made it out the cabin without your help."

Daryl shook his head like he wanted to protest, and stated, "Still ain't enough sometimes."

"Where are we going to go now?" Lucy asked.

"No idea, kid. I know we said west, but I can't see how it'll be different than here."

"The prison…" Daryl mentioned.

"How ya mean?" Dennis prompted.

"That's where my group was staying. Should still be there."

"Is it safe?"

"Safe enough, we locked ourselves in at night. Cleared out most of the inside."

"The one by Lafayette?"

"That's the one."

"How ya gonna say you know us?" Dennis fished.

"Not much to say, y'all helped me get out of Woodbury," he replied. Even though Daryl didn't think much of himself, he always had a soft spot for protecting women and children. He hated to think of them trapped with the hot head that nearly beat him to death knowing what kind of harm could come to them. Dennis and Daryl clearly didn't care for each other, but they needed to work together for survival.

"Where's that?" Lucy interjected.

"It's a town of survivors, but they musta all drank the same kool-aid because they're all goddamn psychos now. They kidnapped two people from our group. I got captured when we went to bail them out."

"Why didn't you just tell us that?" Lucy huffed.

"Didn't know if you were with them or not," he stated.

"Well, we're about two hours away should be there in no time," Dennis interrupted. Lucy wanted to start a fight, but they desperately needed a place to regroup so there was nothing left to discuss.

The rest of the journey was silent as Dennis bit his tongue. Lucy's mind raced thinking about the new people at the prison. If Daryl decided to tell them what happened there was a very real chance they would take their revenge on Dennis or maybe all three of them. She promised herself that she would take care of Annie no matter what it cost her.


	5. Chapter 5: Leave It All Behind

My favorite chapter so far includes a good old fashioned get drunk and hook up scene towards the end :0 This one is rated super M so turn away if you're not into that. Otherwise the show must go on. Enjoy!

When they pulled up on the prison, Rick was in the watchtower looking out across the acres hoping that Daryl would find his way back. They had barely escaped from Woodbury and they were in no condition to make another run back there, but Daryl had become such an important member of the group and his presence was acutely noticed. If they went back to Woodbury, only Rick, Maggie, and Glen would be ready to go on the mission and they had done worse with a lot more people the last time.

The past few days Rick Grimes worried more about his people being able to survive without their redneck bodyguard. Herschel and the kids needed a lot more help than the others might be able to provide. Without the safety of the prison, they might not be able to survive on the run as they had in the previous months.

As he wondered about the future of the group, he was caught off guard when a little jeep pulled up in front of the gate. For a few seconds he thought he was imagining it like a mirage in the desert, but then he saw Daryl jump out of the back seat to yell at him to open the goddamn door.

Carol and Carl noticed the car from the compound and ran down with Rick to open the gate.

"Daryl!" Carl squealed. "What happened to your face?"

"We thought you were dead, how did you get out alive?" Carol wondered.

"Good to see you," Rick gave a smile eager to see a familiar face again. He shook his hand and clapped him on the back. "Let the man breathe."

"I brought some people," Daryl told them, "They found me after I jumped the wall at Woodbury."

"Well they're welcome with us then," Rick beamed as he walked over to Dennis and Lucy to introduce himself.

She felt a little uncomfortable that Daryl was downplaying the way that they initially met him, but figured they couldn't complain since he was more than hospitable in making them feel welcome with his group. He could have told them how Dennis nearly beat him to death. If he was planning on turning against them why would he wait to do it instead of moment he was back with his group.

Ignorant of her companion's suspicions, Annie was by far the best person to ease them into the situation. Her innocence made her the perfect newcomer to fall in love with and she looked so similar to Sophia with her short dirty blonde hair they felt like she had been brought back to them. She shook everyone's hand with the dignity of a perfect little Southern belle and charmed all of them.

Carol looked a little green around the edges when she saw Annie and Lucy felt protective when she noticed the look on her face because she could not place the emotion.

"That's Sophia's momma," Daryl quietly told Lucy to explain the strong reaction.

After the explanation, Lucy tried her best to accept the new people because it was strange for her Dennis, and Annie to be around new people. They still barely knew Daryl and it was a weird sensation to be introduced to his group of people, who they knew next to nothing about.

Rick showed them to the block that they were staying at where Dennis and Lucy picked a room for them. They were used to living in small spaces anyway so Lucy and Annie agreed to share the bottom bunk and Dennis took the top one. Privacy was a thing of the past since they felt safer being together.

They met the others including a young Asian guy and his girlfriend, who was holding a baby, an older man with half a leg chopped off, and a couple kids. Lucy took the time to make sure that Annie met the other kids who were around her age and hoped she would hit it off with them. Rick's son Carl was quite the gentleman and offered to give her a tour of the place as long as it was okay with Lucy.

"You want to take a look around, Annie?" Lucy asked to which the pre-teen nodded slightly not wanting to show that she was happy to be around a boy her own age for a change, "All right then, mister. You look after my lovely lady. Just this room don't wander off," she added as they walked off to go explore the compound together.

"What's your baby's name?" Lucy asked Maggie.

"Oh she's not, um," Maggie stuttered.

"Judith's mine," Rick cut in, "Her mother died in childbirth."

"Sorry for your loss," Dennis held a hand out to him genuinely concerned as he thought about Nell.

Rick thanked them for their concern and excused himself so he could have a chat with Daryl suggesting that the others show them around and get them something to eat. Maggie passed Judith over to Carol and led them to the kitchen area so they could get a bit to eat.

"It's only the three of ya?" she asked as she heated up some rice for them.

"It was four earlier today," Dennis explained.

"Sorry to hear that. We were all worried that those freaks at Woodbury killed Daryl. It's real great y'all brought him back to us."

"Woodbury's a real town?" Lucy wondered.

"Sort of, they have that Waco/Manson family vibe, but the town was real before they took it over."

"That's a shame, it would have been nice for Annie to grow up in a normal community," Lucy mentioned to Dennis.

"We'll take care of her better than anyone else can anyway," he scoffed.

"Are you her kin?" Maggie questioned.

"We are now. The rest of her family is gone."

"Poor dear."

On the other side of the room, Rick asked Daryl some questions about his escape from Woodbury, which he cut down only to the essential information not wanting to remember every detail that nightmare. After a quick explanation, he pressed for more information about the people he brought with him to the prison.

"Are you sure we can trust them?"

"The woman and the girl are fine. Not sure about the man still."

"He have anything to do with the way you look?"

"Yeah, he had a couple questions I didn't wanna answer."

"Why the hell did you bring him here then?"

Daryl sighed trying to think of how to explain what happened. Telling Lucy about Sophia, fighting with them to escape, watching the old woman run off into the woods to buy them time. The kiss. It was a little more complicated than he felt like getting into at the moment.

"A bunch of walkers attacked and she promised me a ride back to y'all if I helped get them out. Seemed wrong to turn on her and leave her out there with the kid. She could have left me tied up to rot. Might have even helped them save the old lady if they had thrown me to them. "

"Well that's the only reason I'll even consider it. We'll keep an eye on them. If they make one wrong move, I'm throwing them out."

"Agreed."

"Oh, and go take a shower. You look like hell."

Meanwhile the others were gathered in the common area making small talk and trying to get to know each other.

"So you carry that thing all around and still don't know how to play?" Lucy asked Glen, who was showing her the guitar he found about a year ago.

"Well I thought I'd figure it out eventually. There was never a good time to practice being on the run and all. Do you know how to play?"

"It must be your lucky day."

"No way! Can you show me something?" he handed her the guitar, but she refused to touch it.

"You play, I'll teach," she offered.

"Can you teach me too?" Annie looked up at her with her big brown eyes.

"Sure, pay attention. You put your first finger on the second string, the second on the fourth one, and the ring on the fifth one there. Yes, like that and then strum it."

He followed the directions exactly, but one or two of the notes sounded flat. Annie covered her ears and made a face.

"Close enough, you have to press them all the way down," Lucy directed.

He tried it again with a much better sound and beamed at her excited that he was finally able to learn how to play.

"Great! That's a C chord and you just learned about half of the world's rock and roll songs."

Lucy taught him a couple more basic chords and then patterns for switching between them. Annie tried to play a couple times and then ran off with Carl and Beth again to go play a card game with them. Within about 20 minutes, Glen didn't sound half bad. Carol and Herschel encouraged him to keep practicing because it was nice to hear some music again after being to long without radios, cds, or ipods.

"You're a rockstar? The world really must have ended," Daryl said as he shook some of the water from his hair.

The others laughed a bit at his joke. Glen looked down and leaned the guitar against the wall.

"You're doing really well," Lucy assured him, "I'll teach you some more tomorrow."

"If you're tha teacher why don't ya play somethin?" Daryl challenged her with a smile oblivious to the fact that she was having trouble not staring at him now that he was all cleaned up.

"No I can't," she fidgeted with the edge of her shirt.

"Can you play Dolly Parton? She was my favorite growing up," Carol smiled.

"No I really can't," she refused and excused herself. Lucy was a private person by nature even the apocalypse couldn't change that. She still found conversations with other people exhausting. They didn't know that the guitar thing would strike a nerve for her so she didn't blame them. It would have been easier to pretend she didn't know how to play, but she wanted to blend well with the group for Annie's sake.

Daryl felt like he had messed up somehow so he followed after Lucy to apologize.

"I didn't mean to put ya on the spot," he cautioned.

"It's not your fault. I-I haven't played in years," she admitted.

"Ya any good?"

"I was going to go to music school, but my mother wouldn't pay for it. She always said it was a hobby I would grow out of when I learned to be an adult. She said she would cut me off if I didn't go to a real college. I took the money," she was still ashamed of her decision, which was why she eventually gave up playing. It was painful to admit that she threw away her dream for the stability of her mother's money.

"You were rich?"

"Yes, considerably. Enough that I would never really have to work if I chose not to."

"What did you do then?" he asked with curiosity. He had already known that she came from a nicer family than he did, but had no idea that she was way upper class. It made him feel a lot smaller around her knowing that someone like her would never have even met someone like him in the old world.

"Well I still wanted to stick it to her so I studied art history instead of business and went to work in an art gallery after college. She wanted me to get married and start a family, but I kept putting it off to focus on my 'career'. Good to know that was all pointless."

"Sorry," he fidgeted and ran a hand through his hair.

As Lucy glanced over at him she couldn't help but look him up and down. Cleaned up, he was much better looking since you could really see his face distinguished by high cheekbones and a strong jaw. Her eyes lowered to his torso. Because he was wearing a sleeveless shirt, she could see well-defined muscles in his arms even though he was naturally thin.

"What was your family like?" she blurted out trying to distract herself from staring.

"We were really poor. Grew up in the mountains hunting for food. Ain't too different than life now. It was safer without all the undead though," he changed the subject not wanting to get into detail about his messed up family. He feared that if she realized just how redneck he was she would never be able to talk to him the same way.

Though they hadn't spoken much with each other, each was beginning to feel the connection strengthen between them. They didn't realize that the loneliness they both felt in the real world made them very similar. It was difficult to share personal details, but both of them were desperate for something to hold onto, which was slowly breaking down the barriers they had put in place so long ago.

"You were more prepared than me. Guess that's what makes you a great fighter now," she complimented.

"You handled the bow real well. Who taught ya?"

"Dennis did. He wanted there to be at least two people that knew how to hunt in case anything happened to him. The other people weren't great with it. I managed to catch on pretty quickly," Lucy stared off to the side remembering all the people they had lost since the beginning. In total 5.

"Thanks for helping us," she continued, "I don't even know where we would have gone."

"Don't mention it..."

"Seriously, I appreciate it. You could have jacked the car and left us on the road."

"Wouldn't have been right. The kid already cryin' her eyes out."

When it got later everyone went to bed except for Glen, who was supposed to take first watch. Rick assured Lucy and Dennis that they could help out the next night once they got a full night's sleep, but it was more because he was still suspicious of them.

Once Annie was asleep, Lucy crawled quietly out of bed and wandered around the room. She climbed up the stairs to the second level so she could look out the window for a while and memorize the surroundings in case they needed to leave quickly.

There were a couple sets of gates that you had to open one at a time to move through them, which could provide an advantage if you locked them behind you. It was a good way to keep the walkers from becoming a hoard. The two watchtowers on either side provided a great lookout for any threats that might be approaching from a distance. The river a couple hundred yards away provided another barrier from potential groups of walkers since they wouldn't be able to swim. The thick walls of the prison felt a lot safer than the cabin, but there was also the possibility that it could trap them inside even though they hoped it would keep the freaks outside.

All in all it seemed like a safe place to stay as far as the set up went. She would have to see what the group was really like in the next couple of days. The majority of them seemed nice no more than the average level of suspicious, but Rick gave her cause for concern. He and Dennis might have too similar a personality to be able to live together. Alpha males always fight each other for dominance.

Rick cleared his throat behind her so she would not be startled. She was anyway surprised to she the person she was evaluating pop up right behind her in the middle of the night.

"Everything all right?" he asked.

"Couldn't sleep," she explained and offered him the seat next to her. "Is the rest of the prison cleared out? There must be a few more blocks?"

"No they're locked up so we didn't bother. Not sure if we'll be able to stay much longer anyway."

"Hard to live in a place designed to keep people trapped?"

"It's safer than most places we've stayed. Beggars can't be choosers."

"That's true," she admitted with a yawn.

"You should try to sleep. Can't walk around exhausted all the time."

"It was a long day, but I don't mind staying up. We're glad to be here."

They were silent for a minute listening only to the sounds of people sleeping, which was a welcome change from the restless nights on the road.

"I wanted to thank you for taking us in with your folks," she tried to be agreeable.

"Not at all as long as y'all abide by our rules. We've known each other a lot longer. Trust isn't earned overnight," he carefully explained. It wasn't a threat more of a warning that he wouldn't allow some newcomer to harm his people even if they seemed friendly.

Rick scared Lucy a bit since it was clear that he was the leader of the group. Even if everyone else liked them, it was clear to her that he would still have the final say about whether they could live with them or not. She assumed Daryl told him about what happened since she would have done the same thing with Dennis.

"I want what's best for Annie. She's better off with more people around to look after her."

"Seems like Carl and Beth have taken a shine to her."

"I'm glad she met them. It wasn't a great morning, she lost her grandmother."

"I heard earlier and that's a shame."

"As a parent… Do you think that makes me her mother?" she asked her burning question.

Rick was the only adult who could imagine her position of trying to care for a child when the rules were suddenly changed. She never even wanted children to begin with. In the previous months she was fine with the role of a sister or aunt, but the idea that she was now the main woman to raise her in her teenager years scared her. Her own relationship with her mother was always strained and the kid didn't need any bad role models in her life after all the loss she had suffered.

"You can't replace her family, but you can be there when she needs a mother," he settled on the piece of advice with a sad look.

"I'm sorry about your wife… If you need help with the baby I can go out with the others for supplies or something."

"Appreciate it… why don't you try to go to sleep now? It's almost light out. You can catch a couple hours at least."

She excused herself to creep back into bed and managed to sleep a little after all.

For the next couple of days, things slid into a normal routine for the prison-dwellers. They picked a couple walkers off the fences, but there were no huge battles for survival. This allowed the newcomers to feel more at ease with the new group they joined.

Early one morning, Judith started wailing and didn't stop all day until people were ready to cut their own ears off so it would stop. Carol figured out that she must be sick since she had a high temperature and needed some medicine. After a short conversation, Rick asked for volunteers to help him. Lucy offered to help, but Dennis took her place so he could earn some respect from the men of the group. They still eyed him suspiciously waiting to see if he would turn against Rick.

"You sure?" Lucy asked him in private.

"I'm still in the hole for smashing the kid's face in so I think I owe them one," Dennis figured.

"You don't want me to come with you?"

"No, one of us should stay with Annie just in case. That prison fella is a creep."

"Tell me about it. He kept asking me if I was a real blonde yesterday."

"Let me know if I need to beat the boys away," Dennis patted her on the shoulder.

"Of course, Pop. Stay safe out there."

Rick looked in the yellow pages and found a small clinic about an hour away. They had already raided all of the ones that were closer to the prison so it was more difficult to find supplies lately.

As Daryl got his weapons ready, he looked over at Lucy, who was straightening up the kitchen area with the other women. He hadn't spoken much with her since he brought the three of them to the prison and there were still some lingering questions on his mind.

"Anything y'all need?" he approached the ladies.

"A stiff drink would be nice," Maggie joked.

"You know it's been a year to date since the end of the world," Carol told them, "Might be nice to celebrate the occasion."

"Get some Livet 15 year old," Maggie said.

"And champagne," Lucy agreed.

"Round of drinks for the drunks then. Anything else?" he looked at Lucy.

"No, can't think of anything."

He nodded and excused himself to catch up with Rick, who was giving Carl instructions on how to look after Judith while he was away.

"That was nice of him," Carol mentioned.

"What?" Lucy asked.

"Asking if you needed something."

"He asked everyone."

"No he wasn't," Maggie laughed, "He isn't tryin' to impress us. We know him already."

"I'm sure he was only being polite."

"That's not his strongest trait," Carol disagreed.

Even though she didn't believe them, Lucy couldn't stop herself from having a stupid grin on her face.

As Rick approached the clinic, Daryl and Dennis looked out the windows of the car to make sure there weren't any herds surrounding the place. The coast looked clear so they got out and headed to the clinic. Daryl took the lead as usual with a replacement crossbow they had found the day before. He still preferred the one he lost at Woodbury, but it would have to make due. Dennis followed behind him with Rick taking up the rear and reminding them to keep close together.

Inside there were only a couple of walkers, but the place had clearly been hit bad at some point. There was dried blood smeared all over the walls and the stench of decay was overwhelming. The men had to keep themselves from gagging a few times.

They moved quickly and were glad to find the medicine cabinet without a scratch on it. Rick sighed in relief because without the contents of the cabinet Judith might not have made it through the week. Dennis looted the bottles throwing them in a backpack along with bandages and as many medical supplies as he could get his hands on since they would likely come in handy if things ever went south.

Daryl suggested they move along once they grabbed everything in sight and the group headed quietly back out the way they came. Since the run was going so well, they decided to press their luck and make a pass through town to see if there was any food they could scavenge. With the extra people, the supply at the prison would only last so long.

They drove down the main road for a few minutes until they stumbled upon the general store. Inside there were rows and rows of canned good that were completely unscathed. Daryl let out a whoop since he couldn't believe their luck for once. He and Rick stuffed their packs with corn, green beans, and peaches.

'What do you think? Feel like throwin' a party?" Daryl asked Rick as he pointed to the row of liquor on the back wall.

"Would be nice to celebrate surviving the past couple weeks," Rick agreed and grabbed a couple of bottles.

Daryl spotted a bottle of champagne in its own box so he figured it must be expensive and snatched it up for Lucy.

For a minute they let their guard down to enjoy their good fortune and unfortunately it was just enough time for a walker to start pounding on the door when it saw the fresh meat.

Dennis was the closest to the door and threw himself on it snapping the lock in place. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would buy them some time to figure out a plan. He looked out the window and saw that the place was surrounded.

"Goddamn biters are everywhere," he told the other two.

"Any bright ideas?" Daryl asked them.

Rick looked around for something to help them out. He found the shopkeeper's gun under the counter and ten bullets, not much of a help, but it was something. When he searched in the closet, there were rows and rows of firecrackers possibly stockpiled there to hide it from the police.

"You think we can use these as a diversion?" Rick suggested to Daryl.

"Oh hell, yeah! Cover the window," Daryl told him.

They switched places so that Rick and Dennis could cover the door while he worked on the diversion technique.

"And they tell you don't play around with fire," he laughed to himself recalling all the times he and Merle blew stuff up in their neighbor's yards.

"Throw it off the roof far away as possible and light it up!" Dennis yelled over to him.

"I got it man!"

He bundled together a bunch of the bigger ones that made the most noise and headed for the roof. The hoard outside was not the biggest they had scene only about 20 so there was a good chance at least half of them would make a break for the fire, which would even their odds considerably.

"How do we know when to make a break for it?" Dennis asked Rick.

Before he could respond, they heard the fireworks squeal and shoot into the sky at the end of the road.

"I think that's our sign," Rick smiled back.

Quickly Daryl ran back down into the store and they threw the door open shooting at the walkers that were closest to them. Most of them had sprinted over to the noise and lights like moths to the flame. Only a few distracted ones lingered by the general store.

Rick led the way taking them down one at a time until he reached the car. He started the engine and then looked back to make sure the others were following him.

"What the hell happened to Daryl?" Rick asked Dennis.

"He must have ran back for something," Dennis responded as he turned and ran back to the store.

Inside Daryl was struggling with a walker that had pinned him up against the wall. It snapped and bit at his face trying to tear off a chunk. Dennis crept up behind it and pulled it off of him and shot it through the skull. Daryl quickly grabbed up his pack and the two ran back outside to rendezvous with Rick, who had turned the car around so they could make a quick getaway. The two of them shot a few more walkers as they jumped into the backseat and Rick floored the gas. A walker almost caught the car, but they made a clean getaway.

"Jesus H. Christ, you are one crazy sunnabitch ya know that?" Dennis whooped as he slapped Daryl on the arm

"What the hell you go back for?" Rick laughed.

"More fireworks, o'course!" he raised the corner of his mouth in a mischievous grin.

"I tell ya this was a goddamn good day," Dennis exclaimed, "Extra medicine, extra food, and even some drinks to celebrate!"

When they returned back to the prison their enthusiasm couldn't be contained as they retold the story to everyone else. They cracked open the bottles and declared it a holiday to celebrate their survival, really everyone's survival.

Daryl made sure to pour Lucy the first glass of champagne and was happy to see the spark in her eye being able to drink her favorite beverage again. Dennis poured glasses for Herschel and Maggie, who ranted about the flavor of the scotch being perfectly aged with hints of oak. She attempted to explain it to Glen, who was clearly uninterested as he and Daryl cracked jokes back and forth at each other. The children crowded around happy to see the adults loosen up and allow themselves to laugh, which was uncommon these days. Even Rick seemed to enjoy himself and joined in on the conversation until the sun set and he left to keep watch outside.

With the medicine, Judith finally tired herself out and was able to sleep giving the adults a welcome reprieve. They were able to talk about the good old days before the world was infested by zombies.

"So when my brother Clive came back for the night, he was drunk as a skunk, and in the morning we found him curled up with the cow in the barn," Herschel told the punch line sending everyone into wild laughter.

"I never heard that story, Daddy. Were ya out drinking with him?" Maggie poked fun at him.

"In my younger years we were quite the trouble makers," he smiled at the memory.

"He's making that up. Momma told me he was an alter boy," Beth interjected making everyone laugh more.

"Oh I don't miss those days. Memorizing lines from the Bible that you had to recite in front of everyone on Sunday morning."

"You know what I don't miss?" Carol chimed in, "PTA meeting with the same moms every month. It must have been a rule that the ones with the worst kids were in charge making everyone miserable just like their kids."

"I don't miss exams and term papers. What about you Beth?" Maggie asked her sister.

"I don't miss cleaning the horse stables. So gross," she wrinkled her nose.

"Or doing homework," Annie chimed in with everyone else. She leaned back on Lucy curled up at her feet.

"I don't miss credit card companies calling me when I didn't have money to pay them back," Glen commented.

"You know the apocalypse thing isn't sounding so bad after all," Lucy told them sarcastically.

"There are some things I miss though," Carol reminisced, "Like showers…"

"Or meeting a pretty woman at the bar," Axel said as he smiled over at Lucy. No one noticed that he made a lot of these comments whenever she was in sight. Usually she ignored him so that he would give up eventually. It seemed to be a harmless rotation hitting on every woman around until she told him off and he switched to the next one.

"That's for sure," Dennis agreed with him, "Me and my wife met late one night at the bar. Bet she regretted that one. Couldn't get rid of me for the next 25 years."

He meant the comment lightly, but then everyone's thoughts turned to the people they had lost. Most days they were able to push those thoughts from their minds. Sometimes the sadness crept back in.

"I miss music," Lucy broke the silence, "I used to play it constantly in my apartment."

"Why don't you play something?" Glen suggested.

"I haven't played in years," she repeated.

"Probably forgot," Daryl taunted her.

"No I didn't! There was a chance I could have been famous. You might have heard me on the radio one day," she confidently told them with the warming effects of alcohol in her blood.

"Prove it," he dared with a smile.

"Fine. Glen, where's the damn thing?"

Glen ran over to his room where he left it and handed it back to Lucy. The others perked up excited that something different was happening at the prison tonight.

"Any requests?" she asked.

"Know any Loretta Lynn?" Herschel asked.

"No, but I think I remember Jolene."

"Oh play that, I love Dolly," Carol told her.

She strummed the strings a couple of times and tried to familiarize herself with the feeling of the wood again. After she remembered the notes, she played them a couple of times and closed her eyes. The room filled up with the sound and echoed the way it should as she belted out the song that used to be one of her favorites. She remembered the calm feeling she used to get when she played like she was on top of the world and no one could ruin her day.

"Damn you got soul for a Yankee girl," Dennis commented when she stopped.

"Thanks? I think."

"That was great," Carol cooed.

Lucy realized what Daryl had done when he challenged her and she smiled over at him silently thanking him for giving her the push to do something she loved again. He nodded and raised a glass without another comment.

For the next hour, the others requested songs and Lucy picked them out on the guitar so that they could all sing along and have some fun. When it started getting late, Carol and Herschel sent the kids off to sleep and followed after them. Axel was already passed out in his seat softly snoring. Maggie and Glen had disappeared a half hour ago to be alone somewhere. Dennis carried Annie to bed since she had already fallen asleep, which left Daryl and Lucy sitting across from each other.

"You tired?" he asked.

"Not really," she said carelessly.

"Let's have a nightcap on the roof," he suggested so she followed him up the stairs to a small maintenance ladder that led them outside. He sat near the edge of the roof and took another swig out of the whiskey bottle they had already put a dent in earlier.

Lucy knew she was already drunk, but took the bottle when he passed it and took a shot too. She started staring at him again knowing that she felt that tingling that made her want to pounce on him, but felt nervous about crossing that boundary. Her experience with men was limited since she had never had a real boyfriend. Not that she was a virgin, but the thought of continuing to see him every day unnerved her more than a one night stand.

"It's a shame we can't do this more often," she made small talk.

"What d'you mean?" he asked thinking that she meant being alone with him on the roof.

"Relax with everyone and throw a little party. It was nice to see the other guys having fun for a change."

"Yea," he agreed as he watched her in the dim light. The moon was half full so it wasn't pitch black out. She shivered a little as a breeze passed by them and he wished he knew what to do to close the gap between them, but he had never been great with women. Daryl always felt himself get tongue-tied and his chest tighten when a pretty girl paid attention to him.

"You're a nice guy probably nicer than people notice."

"No I ain't," he disagreed.

"Yes you are. You're always looking out for other people."

"That's cause I don't want them bugging me or gettin' us all killed," he fired back as he stood up and crossed his arms. Lucy realized she was saying the wrong thing even though she didn't understand why he took the compliment as an insult.

"So you're a bad guy?"

"Damn straight, kind your Momma warns ya not to get involved with."

"We're alone up here. Should I be afraid?" she teased him.

"Fuck yeah," he spat and took another swig to calm his nerves not sure of what she would say next.

"Nah a bad guy wouldn't have a problem with taking advantage of a girl alone with him," she took a couple steps toward him trying to intrigue him, "He would grab her and make her scream his name."

"That what you want?" his voice lowered an octave.

"Take advantage of me," she whispered as leaned in closer to him.

He was drunk enough to not question her meaning even though he would never have touched her without the push. With the moon half full there was just enough light where they felt comfortable to act on their lingering desires. He grabbed her small frame and grinded his body into hers. Reacting instantly, she kissed his neck like she had imagined herself doing and her lips made their way towards his pressing firmly against them.

He never quite figured out how to kiss a girl since he had never gotten serious enough with one to learn, but she was too drunk to notice.

Before she could, he picked her up and dragged her over to the wall covering the stairwell pushing her so hard against it the uneven grain cut into her back, but she liked the pain. It made her alive in her body not the numb detachment she normally felt. He smelled like sweat, but his kisses tasted sweet from the scotch.

She pulled his hair and dragged her fingernails down his back urging him to make it rough. Without missing a beat he unbuckled his pants and she followed suit the cool wintery air raising goose bumps on her skin. He thrust inside her making her cry out.

It wasn't romantic. He didn't kiss her again and she didn't care. They weren't pretending they were in love and it was over quickly, but it was a comfort to forget the world even if it was for a short time.


End file.
